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My dad's still in the ICU. His road to recovery finally looks clearer, but it will be long. Man, that operation really fucked him up. But a heart attack would have messed him up worse, which would have been inevitable without it.
The weekend before last, after they took out his breathing tube when I was up there, his lungs collapsed multiple times and he had bleeding from multiple internal sites. They finally got that under control at the end of last week.
By this weekend his blood count and rate were looking great and his kidney's were back up to full function--no more need for dialysis. He was intubated but alert when I was up there this weekend, and we were becoming finally hopeful that we didn't have to worry about him dying anymore. The doctors said they really didn't expect him to make it through that second surgery when they opened him up again.
Monday they took out the breathing tube and he's been doing fine on his own, but they've been keeping in the feeding tube and just feeding him semi-solids because his swallowing isn't up to strength and he wouldn't be able to cough up anything that went in his trachea. He's been able to talk a little since yesterday. He's in awful pain, mostly from his muscles being in bed for two weeks, and all the places they've stuck him. They've cut back on pain meds to get him to build his breathing strength up again, so it's making him feel even worse and like he's not getting any better. He's angry with all of us, and also in a somewhat demented mental state, due to the meds he's been on, and the awful trauma he's been through. We don't know yet when he is going to get out of the ICU and into a step-down unit. It's going to be a tough winter.
The itchy stress rash I had on my arm started spreading to cover my whole fucking body (except my head, for some reason) on Sunday on my drive home, so I've been feeling like one big miserable pustule the past couple of days and hating everyone. I went to the doctor yesterday and got some methylprednisone tablets that seem to be making some headway today drying out the rash and making it less itchy, and making me admit that not everyone needs to die now. I haven't been a very friendly coworker the past couple of days--luckily I have my own office to skulk in and edit translations of Urdu newspaper editorials. I really hope my body doesn't come up with this brilliant way of protesting stress again. My foot is getting better though-- I took the night splint up with me to NJ this time and that really made all the difference.
Cats are well. Due to it going down to freezing this past weekend and Moo being slowed down from an inoculation I got them on Thursday evening, I left the strays inside with Milli and Saki alone for a couple of nights, and no blood letting or wreckage greeted me on my return--I am proud of them all.
I got a call from one woman who saw one of the signs I put up for the cats. She was looking for an 8 week old male kitten to raise and stud with her female cat before she spayed her because she loooooves kittens. No matter that my sign said in big letters that he was not only 6 months old, but NEUTERED. I tried to explain to her that kittens stay kittens only a short time and that there are many kittens already needing adoption that she could consider rather than add more to the world, but I know it didn't do any good. There is no way I would have stuck these cats with a human that illiterate and stupid. Then I got a call from a woman who was just interested in Tuxie, and I'm still reluctant to split Moo and Tuxie up. Further bad news is that she lives in my town and has spotted coyotes near her yard on the outskirts of town in the agricultural lands. And even spotting the coyotes around her yard, she still lets her cat out. Not a home I would split up this pair for.
Still need to read more in my cell phone manual and my laptop manual and figure out more about how to use these new technological additions to my life.
I'll be going up to NJ again this weekend--got my detours around some of I-95's tie-up spots figured out.
The weekend before last, after they took out his breathing tube when I was up there, his lungs collapsed multiple times and he had bleeding from multiple internal sites. They finally got that under control at the end of last week.
By this weekend his blood count and rate were looking great and his kidney's were back up to full function--no more need for dialysis. He was intubated but alert when I was up there this weekend, and we were becoming finally hopeful that we didn't have to worry about him dying anymore. The doctors said they really didn't expect him to make it through that second surgery when they opened him up again.
Monday they took out the breathing tube and he's been doing fine on his own, but they've been keeping in the feeding tube and just feeding him semi-solids because his swallowing isn't up to strength and he wouldn't be able to cough up anything that went in his trachea. He's been able to talk a little since yesterday. He's in awful pain, mostly from his muscles being in bed for two weeks, and all the places they've stuck him. They've cut back on pain meds to get him to build his breathing strength up again, so it's making him feel even worse and like he's not getting any better. He's angry with all of us, and also in a somewhat demented mental state, due to the meds he's been on, and the awful trauma he's been through. We don't know yet when he is going to get out of the ICU and into a step-down unit. It's going to be a tough winter.
The itchy stress rash I had on my arm started spreading to cover my whole fucking body (except my head, for some reason) on Sunday on my drive home, so I've been feeling like one big miserable pustule the past couple of days and hating everyone. I went to the doctor yesterday and got some methylprednisone tablets that seem to be making some headway today drying out the rash and making it less itchy, and making me admit that not everyone needs to die now. I haven't been a very friendly coworker the past couple of days--luckily I have my own office to skulk in and edit translations of Urdu newspaper editorials. I really hope my body doesn't come up with this brilliant way of protesting stress again. My foot is getting better though-- I took the night splint up with me to NJ this time and that really made all the difference.
Cats are well. Due to it going down to freezing this past weekend and Moo being slowed down from an inoculation I got them on Thursday evening, I left the strays inside with Milli and Saki alone for a couple of nights, and no blood letting or wreckage greeted me on my return--I am proud of them all.
I got a call from one woman who saw one of the signs I put up for the cats. She was looking for an 8 week old male kitten to raise and stud with her female cat before she spayed her because she loooooves kittens. No matter that my sign said in big letters that he was not only 6 months old, but NEUTERED. I tried to explain to her that kittens stay kittens only a short time and that there are many kittens already needing adoption that she could consider rather than add more to the world, but I know it didn't do any good. There is no way I would have stuck these cats with a human that illiterate and stupid. Then I got a call from a woman who was just interested in Tuxie, and I'm still reluctant to split Moo and Tuxie up. Further bad news is that she lives in my town and has spotted coyotes near her yard on the outskirts of town in the agricultural lands. And even spotting the coyotes around her yard, she still lets her cat out. Not a home I would split up this pair for.
Still need to read more in my cell phone manual and my laptop manual and figure out more about how to use these new technological additions to my life.
I'll be going up to NJ again this weekend--got my detours around some of I-95's tie-up spots figured out.
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